Beautiful Mind puts Crowe at top of Oz actors' earnings list

Actor Russell Crowe's estimated 2001 earnings of $15.4m (A$29m), including his take from A Beautiful Mind, were not enough to put him at the head of the annual top 50 entertainers list published in the current issue of Australia's Business Review Weekly. Coming third, Crowe, however, easily led the fifteen actors on the list, most of whose earnings came from working abroad.

Top position on the list went to a group of theatrical producers, while second-placed was 30-year-old rock band AC/DC. Actors featuring in the upper reaches of the list included Portia de Rossi (7th with A$12m), Nicole Kidman (8th, A$11.6m), Toni Collette (11th, A$7.9m), Cate Blanchett (15th, A$6.7m), Hugh Jackman (17th, A$5.8m) and Guy Pearce (18th, A$5.3m).

Only Collette and Pearce worked on an Australian film during the year.

Only eight film directors and producers made it into the list but two of them are in the top five. They are director/writer/producer Baz Luhrmann, whose estimated A$19.7m earned him fourth place and the pair behind the yet-to-be-released TheCrocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Director/producer John Stainton and actor Steve Irwin's A$16.3m, earned them the fifth position.

A new entry is producer Andrew Mason, who shepherded through many big budget offshore films to earn a reputed A$7.7m in 2001 and 12th position.

Others choose to only work abroad including Roger Donaldson (21st, A$4.3m), Robert Luketic (36th, A$2.2m) and Gillian Armstrong (43rd, A$1.9m) but not -- this time -- Phil Noyce (24th, A$3.9m).

The one cinematographer included is Dean Semler (24th, A$3.9m). Television producers and presenters, radio announcers, musicians and singers, one author, and a group of male strippers complete the list.

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